Editing Dacian language (section)

=====Hungarian Plain=====
The hypothesis that Dacian was widely spoken to the north-west of Dacia is primarily based on the career of Dacian king Burebista, who ruled approximately between 80 and 44&nbsp;BC. According to Strabo, Burebista coalesced the Geto-Dacian tribes under his leadership and conducted military operations as far as Pannonia and Thracia. Although Strabo appears to portray these campaigns as short-term raids for plunder and to punish his enemies, several Romanian scholars have argued, on the basis of controversial interpretation of archaeological data, that they resulted in longer-term Dacian occupation and settlement of large territories beyond the dava zone.{{citation needed|date=April 2012}}

Some scholars have asserted that Dacian was the main language of the sedentary population of the [[Hungarian Plain]], at least as far as the river [[Tisza River|Tisza]], and possibly as far as the Danube. Statements by ancient authors such as [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]], Strabo and [[Pliny the Elder]] have been controversially interpreted as supporting this view, but these are too vague or ambiguous to be of much geographical value.{{full citation needed|date=August 2011}} There is little hard evidence to support the thesis of a large ethnic-Dacian population on the Plain:
# Toponyms: Ptolemy (III.7.1) provides 8 placenames for the territory of the [[Iazyges]] Metanastae (i.e. the Hungarian Plain). None of these carry the Dacian ''-dava'' suffix. At least three -''Uscenum'', ''Bormanum'' and the only one which can be located with confidence, ''Partiscum'' ([[Szeged]], Hungary)&nbsp;– have been identified as Celtic placenames by scholars.{{sfn|Muller|1883|p={{Page needed|date=October 2021}}}}
# Archaeology: Concentrations of La Tène-type cemeteries suggest that the Hungarian Plain was the scene of heavy Celtic immigration and settlement in the period 400–260 BC (see above). During the period 100&nbsp;BC&nbsp;– AD 100, the archaeology of the sedentary population of the Plain has been interpreted by some dated scholars as showing Dacian (Mocsy 1974) or Celto-Dacian (Parducz 1956) features. However, surveys of the results of excavations using modern scientific methods, e.g., Szabó (2005) and Almássy (2006), favour the view that the sedentary population of the Hungarian Plain in this period was predominantly Celtic and that any Dacian-style features were probably the results of trade.{{sfn|Almássy|2006|p=263}} Of 94 contemporaneous sites excavated between 1986 and 2006, the vast majority have been identified as probably Celtic, while only two as possibly Dacian, according to Almássy, who personally excavated some of the sites.{{sfn|Almássy|2006|pp=253 (fig. 2), 254 (fig 3)}} Almássy concludes: "In the Great Hungarian Plain, we have to count on a sporadic Celtic village network in which the Celtic inhabitants lived mixed with the people of the Scythian Age [referring to traces of an influx of Scythians during the 1st century BC], that could have continued into the Late Celtic Period without significant changes. This system consisted of small, farm-like settlements interspersed with a few relatively large villages... In the 1st century AD nothing refers to a significant immigration of Dacian people."{{sfn|Almássy|2006|p=263}} Visy (1995) concurs that there is little archaeological evidence of a Dacian population on the Plain before its occupation by the Sarmatians in the late 1st century AD.{{sfn|Visy|1995|p=280}}
# Epigraphy: Inscription AE (1905) 14 records a campaign on the Hungarian Plain by the Augustan-era general [[Marcus Vinicius (consul 19 BC)|Marcus Vinucius]], dated to 10&nbsp;BC{{sfn|Almássy|2006|p=253}} or 8&nbsp;BC{{sfn|CAH: 10|1996}} i.e. during or just after the Roman conquest of [[Pannonia]] (''bellum Pannonicum'' 14–9 BC), in which Vinucius played a leading role as governor of the neighbouring Roman province of [[Illyricum (Roman province)|Illyricum]]. The inscription states: "Marcus Vinucius...[patronymic], Consul [in 19 BC] ...[various official titles], governor of Illyricum, the first [Roman general] to advance across the river Danube, defeated in battle and routed an army of Dacians and Basternae, and subjugated the Cotini, Osi,...[missing tribal name] and Anartii to the power of the emperor Augustus and of the people of Rome."{{sfn|Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby EDCS}} The inscription suggests that the population of the Hungarian Plain retained their Celtic character in the time of Augustus: the scholarly consensus is that the Cotini and Anartes were Celtic tribes and the Osi either Celts or Celticised Illyrians.